Page 24 - Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

Negative thoughts compound. The more you think of yourself as worthless,
stupid, or ugly, the more you condition yourself to interpret life that way. You get
trapped in a thought loop. The same is true for how you think about others. Once
you fall into the habit of seeing people as angry, unjust, or selfish, you see those
kind of people everywhere.

Outrage compounds. Riots, protests, and mass movements are rarely the result
of a single event. Instead, a long series of microaggressions and daily
aggravations slowly multiply until one event tips the scales and outrage spreads
like wildfire.

WHAT PROGRESS IS REALLY LIKE

Imagine that you have an ice cube sitting on the table in front of you. e
room is cold and you can see your breath. It is currently twenty- ve deg rees.

Ever so slowly, the room beg ins to heat up.
Twenty-six deg rees.
Twenty-seven.

Twenty-eight.
e ice cube is still sitting on the table in front of you.
Twenty-nine deg rees.
irty.
irty-one.

Still, nothing has happened.
en, thirty-two deg rees. e ice beg ins to melt. A one-deg ree shi,
seemingly no different from the temperature increases before it, has

unlocked a huge change.
Breakthrough moments are oen the result of many previous actions,
which build up the potential required to unleash a major change. is
patter n shows up ever ywhere. Cancer spends 80 percent of its life
undetectable, then takes over the body in months. Bamboo can barely be

seen for the rst ve years as it builds extensive root systems underground
before exploding ninet y feet into the air within six weeks.
Similarly, habits oen appear to make no difference until you cross a

critical threshold and unlock a new level of per formance. In the early and
middle stages of any quest, there is oen a Valley of Disappointment. You
expect to make progress in a linear fashion and it’s frustrating how